Preliminary design and finished drawing for a lodge, c1777 (2)

Despite its circular drum, this excellent, but unexecuted, lodge - with its conical thatched roof over a modilioned cornice - is larger than the previous Adam design for a rustic building (Adam volumes 21/110, 1/289, 46/149). It ranges across three storeys, with a drum of 25 feet in diameter, and has short wings to each side. A.T. Bolton described it as 'one of the best of these thatched huts designed'. The staircase provides access to the basement storey and loft space. In this instance the loft space would have been light enough for habitation thanks to the oculus in the tympanum of the pediment on the principal front.

The presentation drawing of the lodge (Adam volume 46/148) clearly suggests that the paired Tuscan columns of the portico on the principal front were to be made of stone rather than unhewn trees. In their designs for rustic buildings the Adam brothers more commonly used tree trunk columns. According to King stone was preferable here as the lodge was intended to be seen from the road.